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with making the matter a subject for my constant reflections. But some happy thoughts, the result of my meditations, encouraged me to continue my labors, and incited me to try if I could not systematically surmount all the obstacles in the road of creating and putting into use a rational universal tongue. I believe I have succeeded, to a greater or less degree, and I now offer to the kindly judgment of my readers, this, the fruit of my persevering labor.
The principal problems necessary to be solved are the following:
1. The language must be extremely easy, so that it can be learned without any difficulty.
2. Every one who learns this language must be able to put himself in condition to be understood by people of different nations, whether the language receive an universal approbation or not; that is to say, that this language must be able to serve at the first onset as a veritable intermediary for international relations.
3. Means must be found to overcome the indifference of the bulk of mankind, and to cause the masses to make use of the language offered as a living tongue and not solely to be used with the aid of a dictionary.
Of all the projects offered to the public at different epochs, and often under the sonorous title of an “Universal Language,” which they in no way deserved, there has not as yet been a single one that undertook to grapple with more than one of these enunciated propositions, nor even in that case has the success been more than partial. Beyond these problems of which I have spoken there are also others in plenty whose resolution is desirable, but not considering them at present as essential I shall not enter into their discussion.
Before I show the manner in which I have dealt with these questions, I must ask the reader to consider their importance
